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Three feelings sum up the Arts Sector’s response to COVID–19. Firstly, a feeling of doom and nothing seeming to work. Secondly, a sense of paralysis, coupled with a curiosity about what might work. Thirdly, there’s an optimism about the future, and a fierce determination to survive and thrive in this trying time.
I don’t think these feelings are confined to the Arts Sector, of course, and these feelings alternate with each other even over a single day. Arts organisations are faring better than individual artists. Jobs have some protection, but freelance work sadly does not. Individual artists that have very low incomes, in any case, have lost al

The Liberties is one of Dublin’s oldest neighbourhoods and for Amy Sergison, it’s part of her family history. She revisited the area to explore its evolution.
The Liberties is one of Dublin’s oldest neighbourhoods having been around in one way or another since the 12th century. In my memory, this is where my nana lived and my Dad grew up.
I have very fond memories of visiting my nana on Basin Street. We would know we were close in the car, even if our eyes were closed because we could smell the hops from Guinness. I remember Greta’s shop (sadly gone today), where the floor sparkled like diamonds and jars filled with sugar barley stood tall on top of

Katie Kavanagh, a Dublin 8 based photographer, had an idea. As we’re generally stuck indoors due to COVID-19 restrictions, she’d take portrait shots of her neighbours at their doors. The idea grew legs and she’s linked up with Purple House Cancer Support Centre for the project, ‘Doors Closed, Hearts Open‘. Their aim is to create a gallery of 200,000 Doortraits to support the 200,000 people living with Cancer in Ireland

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Elisa Capitanio is a UX Designer at social media intelligence agency Storyful, and also runs her own independent abstract art business.
She came to Ireland nine years ago completely by chance. Living in Italy, she longed for a change of pace, so she left her home of Bergamo and moved to London. Dublin came calling with an opportunity for Elisa to try her hand at being a web designer, so she packed her bags for a second time and moved country again. Since then, Ireland has become her permanent home and has inspired her art.
She chose Dublin for its fast market and inspiring tech community.
Of working in Dublin’s tech industry, Elisa said:

Traffic: we all hate it. But we’re stuck with – and in – it. Or are we?
A new initiative from Dublin City Council (DCC) and delivery firm UPS is aiming to reduce the number of vehicles on the city’s roads. It uses what UPS call an “Eco Hub” container on Wolfe Tone Street. The Eco Hub acts as a small distribution hub from which deliveries can be made by bike or on foot.
“It came about when we were approached by UPS, who had piloted the same project in London, Paris and Hamburg,” explains Colm Ennis, Senior Executive Engineer with DCC. “We are developing a strategy for city centre goods deliveries and are trying to reduce

In recent years, Dublin has lost some of its most important creative spaces to a building boom that’s reminiscent of the Celtic Tiger era.
Block T in Smithfield and South Studios near Cork Street were both closed down in 2016 with a significant loss of square footage for artists, photographers, designers and writers. In their place, however, a new generation of co-working spaces – aimed specifically at servicing Dublin’s creative communities – is coming into being.
Although they have become abundant in many European capitals in the last few years, co-working spaces are a relatively new arrival in the Dublin property market. In the past 12 months the number

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Following a recent major agreement between the Government and the Hague based Permanent Court of Arbitration there is a significant opportunity for Dublin to become a centre for dispute resolution.
Dublin has a huge amount to offer as an international arbitration venue, including a highly respected legal system. Following the UK’s departure from the EU, Ireland will also be the only fully common-law, English speaking country in the EU. Currently cities including Paris, Zurich and Stockholm have been seen as seats for arbitration, however newer places, including Dublin could now attract high profile cases. This has the potential to be a major boost to the econ

The COVID-19 crisis has resulted in many businesses facing an uncertain future, rethinking how they will make money. Many entrepreneurs have found a silver lining from their new circumstances in being given an unexpected opportunity to work on sustainable and ethical ideas as they reinvent their business.
Making your start-up or existing business sustainable or ethical is also a smart, future-proof option. Customers are now much more informed and aware of the environmental impact of their purchases. A more sustainable product or service will create a positive brand image and reputation that will impact the bottom line of many businesses.

As the impact of the COVID–19 outbreak intensifies, businesses across Dublin are finding ways to diversify to survive the crisis and retain their staff. The virus is hitting our economy hard, and it’s creating a situation that’s well beyond the experience of most business owners. However, in these difficult times, many businesses have managed, with the support of their Local Enterprise Office, to adapt and shift to new products and services quickly.
UNIFORMAL
Uniformal, an established uniform and corporate wear provider based in South Dublin, have been supplying Irish businesses with bespoke and premium ready-to-wear uniform solutions and workwear fo

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With a huge urban campus, state-of-the-art facilities, and the largest student body of any university in Ireland, University College Dublin welcomes hundreds of new international students every year.
UCD prides itself on being Ireland’s global university and has international campuses and strong links to academic institutions in locations as far-flung as Beijing and Malaysia. They have a portfolio of over 500 institutional partnerships in over 90 countries, allowing students and staff to engage in exchange programmes for research, studies, internships, field trips and volunteering opportunities. Around 1,000 students avail of these opportunities every year, a

We sat down with Professor Philip Nolan, president of Maynooth University, to discuss his plans for the university, which lies on the periphery of Dublin. His role focuses on creating a strategy and implementing this to grow and develop the university.
Maynooth University is home to over 1,000 staff and 13,000 students, and more than 1,200 of these are international students hailing from over 60 countries. The university offers a wide range of excellent academic programmes which are delivered by leading researchers in various fields, and students are challenged and encouraged to reach their full potential in this top-class learning environment.
C

Romina Dashghachian is 22. She’s from Germany (her parents are from Iran), and she’s studying for a Master’s in Public Relations at Dublin City University (DCU). Romina’s hometown is Munich, and she reckons that city and Dublin have a lot in common. “Munich has a community feel, so you never feel like you’re in a giant anonymous city. And that’s why I like Dublin as well. When you’re here, you don’t feel like you’re just disappearing in the crowds.”
But how did she come to choose Dublin in the first place? “I was in Dublin two years ago with a friend of mine just for a holiday trip, and we fell

The Enterprising Liberties

The Liberties is one of Dublin’s most characterful and historic districts. It owes its name to the fact that it was originally outside the jurisdiction of the city. So it was free to follow its own rules. In many ways it’s still doing that today.

In medieval times the Liberties was an area of the city in which brewing, distilling, tanning and other traditional industries were located. The world famous St James Gate brewery, home of Guinness, continues the tradition. Meanwhile distilling is enjoying a big revival in the area, with the arrival of the Pearse Lyons, Teeling, Roe & Co and Dublin Liberties distilleries. The whiskey makers have been joined in recent years by many young digital businesses, agencies and startups – all of them eager to locate to an area of the city that offers plenty of space and opportunities to businesses in up-and-coming industries.

Stephen Coyne is programme co-ordinator of the Liberties Business Area Improvement Initiative. One of the Liberties’ most attractive features for start-ups is the sense of energy about the place, he reckons. “It’s a very dynamic area”, he says. “If your business is based here, the streets are alive around you, you’re in the midst of a living community, a living neighbourhood. It’s the opposite of an anonymous business district. It’s a much more diverse and characterful area. You have the whole richness of the city-centre location. It’s probably one of the most distinctive areas of the city in that regard.”

The sense of creativity, of industry, business in the area, it’s infectious, and you certainly feel it when you’re walking through it.

It’s a culturally rich neighbourhood too, he points out. “It’s got a long history and heritage behind it. It brings together a lot of the qualities that people look for in the perfect neighbourhood.”

The Masonry: A former seed warehouse, now a lively workspace enhancing inspiration and creativity.

Some of these qualities are the result of carefully planned development in the area: “We’ve spent a huge amount on improving infrastructure and the quality of the streets. There are beautiful new parks in the area. People have the amenities they’re looking for now. They can go out on to the commercial shopping streets and they’re full of shops and services and cafés and restaurants. We’ve got a Michelin-star restaurant now. We’ve got that whole range of attractions and businesses that you would get in any city-centre area.”

If one company has expertise in one area that another might need, then we’ll set those two up.

With a background in architecture and town planning, Stephen is a connoisseur of the area’s buildings. Many of them date from the Victorian era and are now being rejuvenated and re-purposed. They are the source of much of the Liberties’ characteristically gritty charm. The old power station which used to produce electricity for the Guinness brewery is now the home of a distillery. Another distillery is housed in an old church, yet another in a former tannery. And at The Masonry, a former warehouse now provides some very attractive serviced office space on Thomas Street, one of the area’s major arteries.

The GEC has supported the creation of over 600 start-ups.

There are new coworking spaces – The Masonry is one of them – coming on-stream all the time. Two major collaborative spaces for companies to scale and grow are here too: The Digital Hub and the Guinness Enterprise Centre (GEC). Ronan Donnelly is business development manager at the GEC. The centre is set to double in size in order to accommodate an ever-growing number of start-ups, micro enterprises, social enterprises and small businesses. “The area breeds creativity”, says Donnelly. “NCAD, one of the top colleges for creative design, is here. Vicar Street, (a popular live music venue), the distilleries, the country’s top tourist attraction (the Guinness Storehouse). The sense of creativity, of industry, business in the area, it’s infectious, and you certainly feel it when you’re walking through it.”

The GEC is a serial winner of the highly prestigious World’s Top University Associated Business Incubator award. Donnelly stresses the importance of its ties with a number of international universities: “we give them the chance to work on real-life cases as part of their course, and those cases come directly from the startups here at the GEC.”

Ronan Donnelly: Client & Business Development Manager at GEC.

The eco-system that startups can plug-into at the GEC is another key attraction – and one with an international dimension: “it’s about being able to provide the network. We have links with Enterprise Ireland, who have a global reach through the IDA. Our consultants have global contacts.”

Some of GEC’s consultants have 25 to 30 years’ experience, he says, and are experts in getting products into the market, creating marketing strategies and working on financials. “It’s also being able to provide the best mentorship and guidance for the startups here. We really cover all the areas to make sure that our startups are in the best position to be successful, whether that be going for a seeding or further funding, and building either toward an exit or towards growth. We make sure that when someone comes in, they don’t just get the office space, they get all that experience, they get all that exposure, and they get networking opportunities.”

They also get yoga, hillwalking and classes in video making, should they require such things. “Once you’re a member here”, says Donnelly, “you’re a member of a vibrant, active community. Collaboration is key to the centre here. We try and make sure that our startups are working together and assisting one another. If one company has expertise in one area that another might need, then we’ll set those two up. It has that kind of atmosphere about it.”

Must be that Liberties effect again: welcome to the community that’s always made up its own rules.

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Roisin Lyons, who is a professor in entrepreneurship at DCU, has no time for the mindset that says, in effect, ‘Innovation? Oh that’s just for innovators’. “Everyone needs to be innovative”, she believes, “everyone needs to be enterprising, particularly with growing issues of sustainability in Ireland. People have to be more inventive about solutions”.

The second annual Dublin Startup Week, which took place from October 21st – 25th 2019, was a celebration of the city’s innovation and startup ecosystem.
With five days of networking events, keynotes, panels and workshops – all free of charge – the event was aimed at future, current, and repeat startup founders. Find out more at dublinstartupweek.com
Next up in this mini-series, we meet Natalie Novick, another of the event’s track captains.
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